° 
524 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[JuLy 29, 
ship the Sulphur, by whom it was found in California in great. 
abundance, and forming a most conspicuous object.— Botanical 
Register. 
PiTCaAigNIA MICRANTHA. Small-flowered Pitcafrnia, (Stove 
perennial.) Bromeliacese, Hexandria Monogynia. This singular 
little species was found among some Orchidaccous plants imported 
from Rio, in December, 1941, by Lieut, Christopher Smith, of H.M’s 
Packet ‘‘ Star,’’ and presented to Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P. 
It flowered at Carciew in March, 1843, and proves to be very distinc’ 
from any other of the genus to which it belongs, as well as the 
smallest that has yet come under our notice. It requires the constant 
fa damp stove ; and thrives very well either in loose vegetable 
matter, of on the decayed branch of a tree. The leaves are nuv ‘ous, 
flat, undulated at themargin, flaccid, spreading and recurved, linear- 
lanceolate acute, from nine inchcs to a foot long, and about an inch 
wide; ofa deep green above, anda pale glaucous green beneath, 
without any spines at the edges. The scape is erect, nine. inches 
long, issuing from the centre of the plant, of a brownish green, 
remarkably slender, round and downy, with several linear bracts 
along the stem, which is half its length, covered with flowers; while 
the flowers are white, not exceeding a quarter of an inch across, 
Grooping and opening one or two ata time in. succession, from the 
base upward.—Botanical Register 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Myatt’s Pine Strawberry.—It is a very singular fact, 
to which we have alluded on a former occasion, that 
Myatt’s Pine Strawberry, one of the best of all kinds, 
should be so entirely uncultivable by most persons, and 
yet should flourish with the greatest luxuriance here and 
there. We last year mentioned the fact, that in Mrs. 
Marryat’s garden, at Wimbledon, the sort succeeds abun- 
dantly, and proves most prolific. This year it has con- 
tinued to preserve all its vigour and fertility; and yet 
plants from Wimbledon, transported to the garden of 
the Horticultural Society, are just as unmanageable as 
ever; scarcely growing, and bearing little or nothing. 
‘We must, then, again beg to inquire among our correspond- 
ents whether, since last year, their experience enables 
them to point out how this most valuable sort can be 
grown with certainty. 
The British Association.—We find it announced that 
the next mecting of this body will take place at Cork, on 
Thursday, the 17th August next. The circulars just 
issued state that there will be arranged in the rooms of 
the Agricultural Museum, open daily to members and 
ladies provided with tickets, an exhibition of philosophical 
apparatus, models, machinery, collections of natural 
history, and manufactured products; and that an exhibi- 
tion of flowers, fruits, and vegetables, open to members 
of the Association and ladies provided with tickets, will 
take place, in honour of the Association, on Tuesday, the 
22d August, at 2 p.m., in the Jarge room of the Corn 
Exchange. 
Mr. Hartweg.—We have great pleasure in announcing 
the safe return of Mr. Hartweg to this country, after his 
long travels in equatorial America, in the service of the 
Horticultural Soriety. During nearly seven years he has 
been ransacking Mexico, Guatemala, Guayaquil, Popayan, 
and New Granada, and the large number of fine plants 
obtained during that period bears witness to the zeal with 
which his researches have been prosecuted. 
Cotton Seed for Cows.—It is stated in the American 
Agriculturist, that if cows are fed upon boiled cotton 
seed, with a little chopped corn added, it gives the butter 
a rich flavour and fine yellow colour, and doubles the 
quantity. The cotton seed must be well cooked, which a 
few minutes boiling will do. 
Disease in Potatoes.—We learn from the local papers 
that at alate meeting of the Probus Farmers’ Club, the 
prevalent disease of the Potato crop was brought under 
consideration. It appears that Sir Charles Lemon has 
for some time past directed his attention to this subject, 
and with a view of eliciting the opinions of the members 
of the club, and stimulating them and others to institute 
experiments which might determine the very frequent 
cause of failure in the Potato crop, he furnished them 
with the following paper, confessing at the same time that 
he had obtained as yet actory result. The 
symptoms of the disease, says Sir Charles, are as follows: 
—The sets appear to sprout as they ought, and as others 
which surround them in the same field have done; but 
they are stopped short before they reach the surface, and 
no leaves are formed. Large patches in the field are thus 
left bare; and when the ridges are dug up, it is found 
that these abortive sets have formed each a little button, 
about two or three inches from the surface, and, as it 
were, gone to rest after the effort. The disease produced 
no very sensible effects on the crops till about four or five 
years ago; but I have been informed by a farmer of this 
neighbourhood, that he recollects a few instances in which 
these little dwarfs, called by the country people ‘* Bobbin 
Joans,” were noticed as long ago as 30 years. In the 
neighbourhood of Penzance, a great Potato country, the 
failure of crops from this cause has been more general and 
more destructive than in this part ‘of the county, in 
some instances destroying one-third of the produce, 
This information I derive from a gentleman residing there, 
on whose accuracy I place great confidence. Without 
dwelling on the name, then, let us inquire as to the thing, 
unde derivatur “ Bobbin Joan?” The form in which 
the question first. presents itself, is, whether the defect is 
owing to the soil or the seed? Whether, in fact, some 
principle necessary to the growth of perfect Potatoes is 
either naturally wanting in the soil, or has been, by exces- 
sive culture, extracted ? And, again, whether the Potato 
may not have contracted some disease, or perhaps have 
exhausted that vitality which we know will last only a 
limited time after the creation of a new plant from 
blossom seed, though its produce may be extended over 
an unlimited surface by the propagation of its offspring. 
And this latter supposition is that adopted by the gentle- 
man to whom I have before alluded; who says that the 
Potatoes in his neighbourhood d d, are 
3, Sylvia, Cnariotte, rretimng, +. aw 
Acme. and St, Jerome, Mr, Cadness, 
degenerating, and ought to be regenerated.’? I shall 
presently state reasons why I do not agree with him; but 
first let me give the history of some of his experiments. 
He first took some Potato sets from a field which was 
much infested with “Bobbin Joans,” and planted them 
in new ground; in the crop which was produced, there 
were some, but not very many of these abortions. He 
then planted sets of a fresh sort in the ground previously 
supposed to be infected, and the crop was entirely free 
from the deformity. At my suggestion, a farmer in this 
neighbourhood has made the same experiments; and 
though the result agreed with that obtained near Pen- 
zance only in this, that good sets produced perfect 
Potatoes in ground which had previously produced 
“Bobbin Joans,” I think it is enough to prove that the 
condition of the soil is not the true cause of the complaint. 
The point in which the issue of the experiments made 
here differed from that arrived at near Penzance, related 
to the reproduction of imperfect Potatoes from diseased 
sets. Here none such appeared; but there was a good 
and healthy crop. Moreover, I have planted in garden. 
ground, the very ‘* Bobbin Joans’’ themselves, in which, 
if anywhere, the disease must have prevailed ; and in due 
time, J dug up an abundant return of Potatoes, every one 
of which was sound and of full size. From the foregoing 
experiments, it appears to be clear that the condition of 
the ground is not the sufficient cause of the effect, and 
there is also a reasonable presumption that disease or 
constitutional debility in the plant, arising from the 
decrepitude of age computed from the original sowing, 
does not explain the loss of energy in the plant 
which was so easily revived by renewed planting. 
Then, I think, we must look about for other causes to 
account for the stunted growth described ; and the mode 
of planting the sets suggests itself as the most natural, 
There is some analogy between the effects thus produced 
and the habit which may frequently be observed in the 
growth of certain bulbous plants. The common autumnal 
Colchicum, for instance, if planted too deep, will make a 
shoot which stops short of the surface, and then forms a 
bulb in the position most favourable for its growth in the 
ensuing year ; and I have even seen cases when the plant 
has been accidentally buried very deep, where three or 
four of these bulbs have been formed at nearly equal dis. 
tances from each other—thus, as it were, making its 
journey to the surface by stages. Therefore, planting too 
deep, I have no doubt, may in some cases be the cause 
of the production of ‘ Bobbin Joans.’’ The root may 
not have strength to reach the surface ; and so transfers 
its substance to a more favourable position. But this is 
a very imperfect solution of the difficulty; for in a field 
where the culture has been equal, and apparently there 
has been no variation in the depth of the plants in d 
ferent parts, ‘‘ Bobbin Joans ’’ have occurred in one place, 
and been entirely wanting in every other. This same 
remark is applicable to the idea which suggested itself to 
me, that insufficiency of nourishment and the absence of 
light might account for the imperfect growth of the set 
as described in the third volume of the Horticultural 
Society’s Transactions, page 48. It is there stated that 
Potatoes covered with sand, and placed in a cellar, will 
produce smalltubers, exactly resembling ‘‘ Bobbin Joans.” 
The author thus explains the phenomenon. ‘‘ The 
Potato, from the abundant nourishment which the 
tuber affords to the embryo plant, has an extraordinary 
disposition to vegetate ; and it seems to be possible to 
place it in such a situation, that the vegetating power, 
being prevented from exerting itself upwards so as 
to form stem and leaves, should be employed in throwing 
out roots only with their appendages.” But I do not 
see how this cause can exist in the open field, or what 
is to prevent the vegetating power from exerting itself 
upwards ; and I believe we must look in another direc- 
tion for the natural history of ‘* Bobbin Joans.’’ ‘The 
following circumstances seem to point to that direction ; 
and J submit them to the growers of Potatoes as leading 
to a conjecture to be verified or,;contradicted by their 
experience :—From a heap of Potatoes lately turned, some 
of which had shot out to a considerable length, two or 
three examples have been brought to me in which the shoot 
had been suddenly stopped by a small tuber. On cutting 
open the Potato, I found that the inner substance had 
entirely decayed away, and not more than half an inch 
remained of the interior substance. This, however, ap- 
peared to be perfectly sound. Furthermore, on referring 
again to the farmer from whose field I first got the ‘* Bob- 
bin Joans,” and who had suffered severely in his crop in 
the season before last, I learnt that the Potatoes from 
which he had taken the sets which produce the defective 
crop, had been drawn in very wet weather, and stowe 
away without being properly dried. ‘They had remained 
in that state; and 1 have no doubt that incipient decay, 
though unperceived when the Potatoes were cut, had 
produced some change in the substance unfavourable 
to the growth of the set. Heating by fermentation, 
or from any other cause, and perhaps frost, may pro- 
duce the same sort of disorganization ; and I think it is 
not difficult to conceive that the starch of the Potato, 
being prematurely changed into sugar, and. dissipated 
before the young plant is in a condition to absorb it, the 
set may be rendered unable to afford the nourishment 
requisite for healthy growth. What remains of the ori- 
ginal substance may be simply transferred to the little 
tuber, as the substance of the cotyledons of a bean are 
transferred to the root-leaves, before those leaves have 
begun to perform their functions, and attract from the 
atmosphere the proper nourishment for the infant shoot. 
The rcasoning which I have thus indulged in I confess is 
not conclusive, but it may point the way to some useful 
and practical conclusions, and I offer it in the hope that 
“Pinks, 1, Robinson’s Lord (quer oy Dowvse scvens, 
the subject may be taken up by a more experienced agri- 
culturist. In my hands the result pretends to no more 
than to be conjectural ; and my surmises are as follows :— 
Ist. That a chemical change may occur in the internal 
substance of a Potato which the eye cannot discern ; but 
which may render it unfit to afford nourishment toa 
young plant in the first season of its growth. 2d. That 
this incipient decomposition may be produced by damp- 
ness, by heating, or by bruises. 3d. That the utmost 
care is requisite to preserve that portion of a crop which 
it is intended to plant again in the most perfect state 
of health and integrity.— Carclew, April 18, 1843, 
P.S.—Since writing the above, a circumstance has been 
related to me, which at first appeared to be entirely inex- 
plicable, according to the view which I have taken ; but, 
on reconsideration, I think it is not at variance with my 
conjecture :—A large quantity of Potatoes were cut for 
seed. Some of these were planted in the morning, and 
some in the evening of the same day. Those which were 
planted in the morning grew well ; those planted in the 
evening produced dwarfs, and ended ina failing crop. 
Now, I think we have only to suppose that incipient fer- 
mentation had taken place in the heap of cut Potatoes, 
and the result may be thus explained. The sets which 
were at the top of the heap were sown first; and these 
would be less affected by the exclusion of air and the 
pressure of the heap, Those sown in the evening were at 
the bottom of the heap, and may have been bruised by the 
weight of the mass above them,—at all events, fermenta- 
tion would commence there ; and therefore the chemical 
change of substance which would end in fermentation, 
would commence there also.—At the conclusion of the 
paper, a rather long and interesting discussion ensued 
between the members of the Club, as to the cause of the 
disease in question. Its destructive effects were acknow- 
ledged by all, but so completely were the opinions of the 
members at variance, as to the cause, that it was recom- 
mended that experiments be instituted forthwith, and we 
recommend others to do so also, so that we may now hope, 
as the subject is fairly brought before the public, that it 
will be thoroughly investigated. 
GARDEN MEMORANDA. 
Miss Traitl’s, Hayes, near Bromley, Kent.— Although the season 
at which this place is seen to the greatest advantage is somewhat. 
past, there is, nevertheless, much to engage the attention of 
those who take an interest in well-grown plants. The Pelargo- 
ium-hot etty sy fed edifice, is filled with good 
middle-sized specimens of the best varieties in cultivation, 
which, although slightly on the decline, still exhibit evident 
traces of the skilful manner in which they have been bloomed. 
ers; E. ovata, a noble vanety with extremely large. 
waxy, flask-shaped blossoms, and of robust habit; with fincly- 
formed specimens of E. retorta, ampullicea, Savilleana, and the 
rare infundibuliformis, each of which will shortly be one mass of 
bloom, two feet in diameter and the same in height. Here 
we saw a young plant of Fuchsia Eppsii—a strong. growing 
variety, with flowers of a large size, the sepals of which are 
bright carmine, the petals, being, however, deficient in that 
depth of purple which is so desirable ; it is, moreover, stated to 
e In the open air, but sheltered from the sun 
by one end of the Pelargonium-house, are Oo magnificent 
specimens of Borénia serrulata, trained to hemispheri 
lises, and literal'y covered with their bright rosy flowers; with 
healthy plant of Gompholébium polymorphaum. Fronting this 
house is a. small lawn, neatly laid out in beds of various torms, 
planted with Roses, Pinks, and half-hardy border plants ; and on 
the right of this, against the north side of a wall, alarge collection. 
of Heaths and other hard-wooded plants are arran; ged, ‘Those in 
ower consist of a very handsome specimen of Erica tricolor 
Superba, a remarkably large-blooming variety ; tricolor élegans, 
at least three feet in diameter, but not more than two in height; 
densa, bearing clusters of pretty white flowers throughout the 
whole length of the stems ; two lovely specimens of the beautiful 
E. eximia, and several varieties of B. ventricosa. A well-grown 
plant of Polfgala cordifolia, scarcely two feet high, exhibits one 
unbroken mass of bright purple flowers, together with th lia 
undulata and several species of Pimelea. In the conservatory, 
and planted in the border at one end of the house, which it as 
pletely covers, is a ifi plant of Brug Sen BUC Ay 
os 
Pimelea ornament the stages. In the border a fine old plant of 
Acécia affinis is growing, havin 
diakietery ite head has, Tawevde: teed partly removed, to keep 
it within the limits of the house. ‘The IC BIR the con. 
servatory, and contains excellent specimens of Ixora coccinea, 
Clerodendron paniculatum, Rondelétia speciosa, forming quite a 
shrub, with here and there a cluster of rich orange and scarlet 
rbia Bronnii, so dense that its stems touch 
nidaceous house is not particularly gay, on 
account of the plants being required, when in bloom, to decorate 
‘the drawing-room s situated between two Vineries, in one of 
which the Grapes have already attained maturity; those in the 
other, consisting entirely of Black Hamburghs, are rapidly chang= 
ing colour, and promise to be extremely fine.—R. 4., July 3 
Heligan, nea 0 z Seat of J 
Esqy.—Some fine specimens of the Benthdmia fra; 
much as four inches in diameter. This shrub has a magnificent 
appearance, and ought to be generally grown,—W, EB. R. 
Mehiewos, 
The Journal of Agriculture, and Transactions of the 
Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. New 
Series, No. J. Blackwood. 
Tue appearance of this excellent periodical is always 
welcome, and we are glad to find that the commencement 
of a new series furnishes those who are only now turning 
their attention to the science of Agriculture with the 
opportunity of becoming subscribers to it. As usual, the 
papers of the Highland Society demand the greatest share 
of attention, but in the Journal itself are several articles 
well worth perusal. : 
«= in the first article, Professor Johnston takes advantage 
Niall aad 
